Edit: I will come back and edit this original post in a day or two after it seems like about everyone has commented that is interested. I will tell you what I know about this little test.

Edit 9/9/13 at 6:47PM central time:

Ok, for those that didn't realize it, I knew when I started that this was not a great shot. Hence the reason for the title of the thread. I did drink it. It was not great, but not the worst I have been able to produce either. In fact, I have produced many that were not so good back when I had pressure problems with my old machine.

I always have trouble describing sour and bitter. I drank the shot in milk, so my description would have been "bland". Most of my sampling of straight shots of espresso is limited to a very small amount. I actually feel I do a better job judging a shot by the smell. Seems to me that there is a sweetness to the aroma that reminds me of chewing tobacco and maybe a little citrus sometimes. Don't ask my how I refined that weird way to describe coffee aroma and learned to trust it.... because I don't know. This also doesn't work on drip coffee.

You may wonder why I was pulled down so tight on my grind. Well, I saw all of those videos of those slayer shots that were thick as mud at first, and I was trying to reproduce that... without much success. I have pretty tight on my grind the last few days trying to keep my shots thick at first thinking I could find a taste profile that I have never found before. Even the 25 second shot I posted separately a few days ago was pretty fine on the grind... but I have noticed some things: The crema is actually lighter in color when I try to keep the grind fine. That surprised me. I have much darker crema when I coarsen the grind and try to yield 32-36 grams from 18 grams of coffee in about 25-28 seconds from pump on.

This entire last week has been nothing but changes and trying new things for me because the V2B makes it very easy for me to make slight changes and be able to repeat the results. This machine is much more than I expected and even though I was afraid I would have buyer's remorse, I am glad I have it. I love how repeatable the machine is. I have been making espresso since the late 90's and today was the first time I was sure I had seen tiger striping.... that was a pretty good feeling. I am still varying grind and pull time and enjoying the opportunity to taste all of the different tastes, but so far the only shot I have sinked was the very first one I made simply because my grind was too far off. Some of those shots were not too great, some of them pretty darn good. One was probably the best I have ever made.

I look forward to sharpening my skills and I am very appreciative of all those of you that helped me through the dark days when my pressure was way low on my old machine and I was sinking shot after shot. Some of you always gave me the benefit of the doubt and I appreciate that.

The pour looks great to start off with. It's lovely and dark, syrupy and that's the sort of consistency at which I try to pull my morning double ristrettos. The problem that I see is that it blondes really early. I think it's going to be a pretty bitter shot from that blonding. Will be interesting to hear what it actually tasted like... I would SINK IT.

Helen said it first. Always taste it, you are often surprised, I have had some GREAT shots that took over a minute to pull and I have had some come in at thirty seconds that were OK in a milk drink but not so much on their own.

In real life, my name isWayne P.Anything I post is personal opinion and is only worth as much as anyone else's personal opinion. YMMV!

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